This invention relates to improvements in a slide apparatus for use in an automotive vehicle, more particularly, to improvements in sliding characteristics in the slide apparatus which has a slide member manually operated or electrically operated under a condition conforming to manual operation which is especially such that a bearing pressure between slidably contacting surfaces of the slide member which slidably contact with an opposite member is not higher than 60 kg/cm2 and that a sliding speed is not higher than 300 mm/s. The slide member operated under the above condition includes a window regulator for a window glass operating apparatus, a guide rail of a slide door, a check link of a hinged door, a finisher of a seat belt, a cupholder, an ashtray, a hinge of a console, a hinge of a rear door, a gas-filled stay of the rear door, and the like.
There is an electrically operated window regulator for an automotive vehicle as an example of the slide apparatus. The window regulator usually includes an electric motor provided with a speed-reduction device such as a reduction gear and connected through the speed-reduction device with a drum. A wire is passed at its central portion on the drum and has opposite end portions which extend respectively through turn guides to be secured to a carrier plate. The carrier plate is a press-formed article formed of a sheet metal, and provided with a slider which is made of a plastic and slidably fitted to a guide rail. The carrier plate is fixed to a lower end side of the window glass. The guide rail is formed of pressed steel plate or sheet having a generally C-shaped cross-section. With the above arrangement, when the motor is rotationally driven, the wire passed on the drum is moved so that the carrier plate fixed to the wire is moved upward and downward together with the window glass.
In such a window regulator, a variety of devices are made to improve the sliding characteristics of the slider to the guide rail. For example, a technique is for lowering a sliding resistance by adding lubricants such as silicone oil, molybdenum disulfide or the like to a slidably contacting member of the slider in contact with the guide rail, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 09-112125. Another technique is arranged such that a slidably contacting portion of the slider is in the shape of a roller which is in slidable contact with the guide rail, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 2003-312254. A further technique is arranged such that the slider is provided with an elastic projecting piece which supplies lubricant to a slidably contacting surface of the guide rail while the elastic projecting piece slidably moves, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 07-317432. A still further technique is arranged such that the slidably contacting surface of the slider in contact with the guide rail is formed with a groove to hold lubricant, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 10-037586.